Olive Lewin successfully acted on behalf of
William Thomas in a claim against Brighton Healthcare NHS Trust.
William is the son of Gillian and Nick and was born on 8 September 1997. Gillian had a high risk pregnancy due to a medical condition, and when she was a week plus term, went into labour in the early evening of 7 September. There was an initial check
CTG on admission, which was normal but then throughout the course of the evening there was no further CTG monitoring. The midwife did however listen to the fetal heart using a
Sonicaid device.
At 02.05 the midwife recorded that she had heard a normal fetal heart rate, and at 02.07 William was delivered stillborn. The experts instructed on William's behalf said that the Sonicaid recordings of the fetal heart must have been incorrect, as they were inconsistent with William's condition on delivery. A further criticism was that Gillian was allowed to labour in the second stage for 1 hour and 42 minutes, without any senior input from either the senior midwife or a doctor, and was in breach of the labour ward Protocols.
Internal complaints documentation were critical of the fact that there was no monitoring despite the midwives being aware that Gillian was a high risk pregnancy. William was resuscitated, and as a result of severe lack of oxygen, he has suffered
dyskinetic cerebral palsy, but he has preserved intellect.
Liability was admitted, and on 10 July 2006 a settlement of £4.8 million was awarded. For further information please contact
Olive Lewin on 020 7650 1200.
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